In Brief: Mar. 27, 2000

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LOOK MA, NO HANDS Most cell-phone headsets are goofy and awkward,dangling tiny microphones in front of your face. Not this one: Body Glove's new EarGlove, available in stores this month for $25, fits comfortably around the ear, and a street test found the sound quality quite good. It's ideal if you must make calls while driving. And you'll certainly get your share of looks chatting hands-free as you stroll down the avenue.

DRINKS ON YOU Thinking about bartending school? Here's a cheap way to train: Last Call, a new CD-ROM game from Simon & Schuster Interactive ($20). Players must learn to mix from memory the more than 70 drinks featured in the game and deliver service with style (think Tom Cruise in Cocktail), all while maintaining the proper mood music and bouncing troublemakers. Those who earn the most in tips win the game. And here's a nice surprise: unlike most computer games, this one's a hybrid, meaning it'll run on either a Windows PC or a MacIntosh.

ORDINARY.COM Why do some men shave while others grow a beard? Why the sudden hush in an elevator? A new online periodical called the Journal of Mundane Behavior mundanebehavior.org analyzes these and other quotidian activities. Why bother to log on? Because the ordinary reveals more about ourselves, says managing editor Scott Schaffer, a sociologist at California State University at Fullerton: "Most of us don't lead Jerry Springer lives." True, but his show should still get the ratings.

--By M.M. Buechner